THE enthusiasm for National Hunt racing oozes out of Cathal Ennis. Though not from a traditional racing background, Ennis fell in love with the winter game once exposed to it. That passion has underpinned his success in breeding, and kept him in it through the numerous tribulations that have been visited upon him in that period.

Now 41, he grew up on a mainly cattle and pig farm in Castletown-Geoghegan. By his early teens, his father, Stephen bought a few half-bred horses and a thoroughbred filly. Around the same time, he started going racing during the summer holidays at nearby Kilbeggan and bought into it the sport completely.

In time, it became evident to him that the only way to get involved was as a breeder. So when Stephen retired from farming he modified the family farm with the production of thoroughbred horses in mind. The improvements have continued over the years and Quill Farm is now home to Ennis’s mares and fillies.

He owns 20 broodmares, including a handful in foal for the first time. Star of that crop is Queen Alphabet, who won seven times when trained by Peter Fahey and running in his mother, Carmel’s colours. Another first-timer is Queen Deirdre, sister to Identity Thief and a bumper winner for Willie Mullins before breaking down when odds-on favourite for a listed bumper. He also acquired top race mare Turbo Linn earlier this year and she is in foal to Soldier Of Fortune.

Among the more established mares on the farm are the dams of Monalee and For Non Stop, as well as sisters to Identity Thief, Ballabriggs, Merry Gale, Trabolgan and Aqua Dude.

CAREER HIGHLIGHT

The highlight of Ennis’s career to date is breeding Grade 1 winner Identity Thief, while Home Farm, Queen Alphabet, Childrens List, Aqua Dude, Red Hanrahan and Appy Days are just some of the others to do the business on the track.

He won the point-to-point breeder award last season for most winners bred and has an exciting crop of young graduates due out on the track in the coming months, while he received the 2015-16 ITBA Midlands Region NH Award for Identity Thief’s success.

Quill Farm is managed by Ennis’s first cousin Michael, a man who was part of the first Westmeath team to win an All-Ireland U21 football title, and also the first side representing the midlands maroons to be triumphant in a Leinster senior football final. Neither feat has been replicated.

Michael, who also has some broodmares of his own, is invaluable to Cathal as the boss has a day job in Dublin selling advertising for the Sunday Business Post. So too are Michael Moore and his staff at Ballincurrig House Stud in Cork, who prepare and consign all Quill’s colt foals. Cathal’s parents remain willing advisers, while new wife Orla is now walking foals, 12 months removed from never having touched a horse. Indeed so immersed has she become in the business that she is quick to note a stallion that has been on a winning run and should perhaps be kept in mind for the farm’s broodmares! Michael O’Donoghue (vet), Gwyn Meredith (farrier) and Gary Gleeson (transporter) are other integral elements of the team.

Their endeavours are all focussed on this time of the year and particularly Tattersalls Ireland’s November NH Sale from November 12-27. This is make or break.

TATTERSALLS

What do you have for Tatts?

“I have eight colts and five fillies. Ballincurrig look after the colts for me. They spend six weeks with them before the sale. They have the contacts and are so professional. We sell the fillies ourselves.

“I’m involved in half share in a Walk In The Park brother to Monalee with Aidan Aherne, who bred Many Clouds. He’s from the lovely Rose Of Inchiquin, Be My Belle, Empire Of Dirt blacktype family. He’s a nice big colt.

“I have three Kayf Tara colts. One is a brother of Cruiseaweigh and Minella Times (see panel). The other is out of a bumper winner called Nurse Ratched, which is the family of Prix de l’Arc winner Trempolino.

“Then I have a couple of nice fillies. I have a half-sister of For Non Stop by Sholokhov, a nice big filly. For Non Stop won a Grade 1 and was third in the Ryanair Chase. I have a full-sister to Aqua Dude who won in Uttoxeter recently.

“We also have two colt foals through Ballincurrig in Goffs in December and also four more fillies including a half share in a Milan sister to the ill-fated Many Clouds.

“This is a crucial time for me. It’s my All-Ireland. For Colm Bowe or the Doyles, winning a point-to-point first-time out is their be-all and what follows on from that is a good sale. The foal sales are my big day in the sun.”

How nerve-wracking is that?

“Very. Sometimes I don’t enjoy the sales because of the pressure of it. I suppose it’s more relief when it’s over. You could look back on it maybe and say ‘It was a bit of a buzz’ but at the time you’re worrying about how the foals will be received, that they will stay right, that the market will be strong, that the sires they are by are still in fashion. It’s very nerve-racking because your whole year is based on that week or those few days. That’s where having the team in Ballincurrig is so important, to take the pressure off me with the colts.”

Have you had bad times?

“I made a lot of mistakes and was lucky to stay in business. When I started, I bought a couple of colt foals and sold them to Tom Costello. That funded the purchase of my first broodmare Papoose, who had by then had future Grand National winner Ballabriggs. I got off to a good start and maybe thought things were easy. I got a rude awakening in a big way. I over-invested, paid too much for fillies and mares in that boom period from 2005 to 2007. I nearly went out of business but a lot of people showed a lot of patience and I dug in.

“If I’d have owed money to the bank I’d have been closed up. I was lucky in that the people I owed money to were prepared to work with me and wait for a sale. And I’m very appreciative of that. There were times back then I was close to packing it all in. Coming up to the November sales back then I would have to borrow money from friends to feed the foals. The support I received at this time and to this day from the likes of the big National Hunt stallion men like Albert Sherwood at Grange, Robert and Bobby McCarthy at The Beeches, Paul and his late father Liam Cashman at Rathbarry and others, plus my vet in Mullingar, Michael O’Donoghue, I will always appreciate. We are in a better position now, albeit you’re only ever one bad year away from that again.

“I came home from Cheltenham a few years ago and found Identity Thief’s mother with a broken leg in the field. That was a fair blow after Identity Thief had run so well in the Champion Hurdle. I had Annie Power’s mother Anno Luce. I tried to buy her when she was in foal with Annie Power and got her eventually afterwards, only to lose her to colic. I didn’t have her insured.

“The last two years I have had to rush Triptoshan, the dam of Minella Times and Cruiseaweigh, to Troytown for emergency colic surgery. I was sure she was gone and I’m very thankful to them. There are so many ups and downs in the game, many more downs and it’s all part of it. We all get bad days with horses and it makes you enjoy the good days when they come.”

EYE ON THE FUTURE

Is there any particular rule you follow religiously?

“The last couple of years I thankfully haven’t come home with one colt foal from the sales. I’ve taken the good and the bad, the rough with the smooth. There’s some that make a nice bit more than I was expecting and there’s plenty that might fall a bit short. I have to take my medicine. Colts are there to be sold.

“It’s different with the fillies, as I keep some fillies, I race some or I lease some; I’m keeping an eye to the future with the fillies and on what they might be worth to me as broodmares down the line. With the colts, my philosophy is that I don’t want a colt foal on my farm on Christmas Day and that’s been the case the last three years, unless they’re inside their mothers. Touch wood that continues this year.”

Leasing fillies to get form has worked well for you.

“I lease out fillies to Peter Fahey and Ian Williams. We had Queen Alphabet with Peter too running in my mother’s name. We go back a long way with Peter and Ber and they have always been very good to us. Ian Williams has done great work for me with two fillies. Appy Days got me a bit of blacktype and Rebel Yeats [runs at Ascot today] has won a couple of races me after disappointing us initially. They’re two men that have great strike rates.

“I have a good bunch of youngsters leased at the moment. Friends that had Queen Deirdre have a Beat Hollow filly with Willie Mullins, Magical Miss, that won’t run again until the spring. She was fourth in a bumper in June. Rebel Yeats will probably have another run for Ian Williams (at Ascot today) before coming home for the winter and then going back to him to run over fences next spring or summer, and Peter has a couple of fillies. There’s always a couple on the go.

“We have some nice young fillies coming on that are available for lease, three-year-olds that have been broken in and done a bit; even some well-grown two-year-olds with nice pedigrees. We’re always looking for an outlet to lease or sell a filly.”

MARES’ RACING

The improvement in the mares’ racing programme has been a big boost for the breeder.

“It has improved a lot. Paul Nicholls didn’t have any mare a few years ago and now he’s plenty. Nicky Henderson has always been associated with mares, to be fair to him. Willie Mullins has a strong band over here. All the top trainers have them now.

“We need to create even more valuable opportunities for mares to make them more attractive to purchase however. Why can’t we have a mares’ championship bumper at the Cheltenham Festival? I know the ill-fated Fayonagh won the Champion Bumper but it’s very few mares take on the geldings in that. There’s a mares’ bumper in Sandown before it and one after in Aintree and they are always very competitive. I just think a mares’ championship bumper at Cheltenham is guaranteed to be filled with the top mares from Ireland and England.

“I think you could have a mares’ chase too over two and a half miles. You have the mares’ hurdle and the mares’ novice hurdle. It will never become like the flat, where there is an equivalent Group 1 for fillies as there is for colts but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for four of the 28 races at Cheltenham to be for mares, and to have them at all the big festivals on both sides of the water. They are there in Ireland to be fair but we need to see them at Cheltenham. It showed this year with Apple’s Jade, Limini and Vroum Vroum Mag in the Mares’ Hurdles. It was probably the race of the festival, three horses owned by big owners. That’s great to see. We all want the mares well sought after.

“As a result, the point-to-point men are beginning to look more at mares. There was some good money for mare point-to-point winners over in the UK and that’s what you want. Over here, the Doyles, Colin Bowe and all the Wexford lads dominating the point-to-point scene all have a nice bunch of mares.”

ONES TO WATCH

CASTLEBROOK: A wide-margin winner of his debut point-to-point last February, he was subsequently sold to Alan Potts by the Mangan family. Has the size and physique to make a proper staying chaser in time. Runs at Cork on Sunday.

AQUA DUDE: Another to come from the pointing field, he was an impressive winner of his competitive beginners’ chase last month and goes for the big handicap chase at the Cheltenham November meeting. I have a full-sister to him at the upcoming Tatts Nov NH Sale.

MINELLA TIMES: He came down at the last when in control on his sole point-to-point this spring. John Nallen subsequently sold him to JP McManus and he looks a nice prospect for his new trainer, Henry de Bromhead.

CRUISEAWEIGH: One to watch out for Tom George over fences this year, having won his bumper. I have a lovely Kayf Tara colt foal brother to sell at Tatts.

BEER GOGGLES: After an aborted chasing campaign, Beer Goggles has blossomed back over hurdles and won three out of his last four. Still only six, and rated 152 over hurdles, he could be open to further improvement.

PRESENT RANGER: Second on his only point-to-point in the UK, this full-brother to Ballabriggs has moved to Dan Skelton and should run shortly.

WENYERREADYFREDDIE: Winner on his latest start over hurdles for Nicky Henderson in March, this Beneficial gelding should do well over fences this coming season.

STALLIONS TO FOLLOW

STALLION fashion can be hard to predict. Flemensfirth, Walk In The Park, Kayf Tara and the late Presenting, are still top of the pops. Getaway seems to be making a big name for himself and the reports are encouraging about horses by him yet to run. I’m a big fan of tough, solid sires like Milan and Westerner and feel they are excellent value for money for NH breeders. Robin Des Champs is very likeable too.

There are lots of top sires though and plenty of choice for breeders. Galileo seems to be making a big name too as a sire of NH sires. Stock by Soldier Of Fortune seem to have inherited their grandsire’s never-say-die attitude on the racecourse too. I’ve sent a few barren/maiden mares to France to Saint Des Saints and Martaline as well.

Breeding can be peculiar in that some sires can be disappointing for racehorses and then go on to be very successful broodmare sires. Take Saddlers’ Hall for instance – he probably didn’t make the full impact expected on the NH racecourse but has really come up trumps so far as a NH broodmare sire thanks to the exploits of Yorkhill and Samcro, to name but two.